title: Visual servoing in medical robotics: a survey. Part I: endoscopic and direct vision imaging - techniques and applications.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intra-operative imaging is widely used to provide visual feedback to a clinician when he/she performs a procedure. In visual servoing, surgical instruments and parts of tissue/body are tracked by processing the acquired images. This information is then used within a control loop to manoeuvre a robotic manipulator during a procedure.
  
  
  METHODS
  A comprehensive search of electronic databases was completed for the period 2000-2013 to provide a survey of the visual servoing applications in medical robotics. The focus is on medical applications where image-based tracking is used for closed-loop control of a robotic system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Detailed classification and comparative study of various contributions in visual servoing using endoscopic or direct visual images are presented and summarized in tables and diagrams.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The main challenges in using visual servoing for medical robotic applications are identified and potential future directions are suggested. 'Supervised automation of medical robotics' is found to be a major trend in this field.
authors.affiliation: Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Azizian
authors.forename: Mahta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khoshnam
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Najmaei
authors.forename: Rajni V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D003201:Computers; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D019723:Endoscopes; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods; D057605:Natural Orifice Endoscopic Surgery / Q000379:methods; D009985:Orthopedics; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D013525:Surgical Instruments
keywords: image-based tracking; medical imaging; medical robotics; minimally invasive therapy; visual servoing